How do I stay motivated?

Because his life has more twists and turns than your standard never ending Ekta Kapoor daily soap.

So, Achyut as a kid is highly curious just like any other kid and has aptitude for analytical skills along with liking for mathematics.

The upshot? He scores 100% marks in mathematics in almost all exams from class I till his graduation.

He ranks 16th in the state during his matriculation and tops the University in his next exam. He gets admitted into the famous IIT Bombay.

Now comes the first twist in his life. After completing a degree in chemical engineering, Achyut loses his interest in life and switches several jobs. After doing all sorts of things he finally settles into IBM as a computer programmer.

By this time he has lost his enthusiasm, has become alcoholic and has numerous vices.

And here comes the decisive moment of his life. On a random day he learns that his son has autism.

Autism has no cure which means his son will have to be dependent on others for his entire life. Like any other father, Godbole is now tormented from this devastating question- How will his son survive after Achyut’s death?

Godbole makes calculations and arrives at a sum of money which according to him will be enough for his son to sustain even after Achyut’s death. But there is a catch.

The current salary of Godbole will never earn him that sum of money. To earn that money Godbole will have to work at a higher position. Godbole knows his credentials and also knows that with his current credentials he will never get any promotion.

Now it seems Godbole has struck a dead end. He gets into depression and evens thinks of committing suicide.

But his love for his son overrides these thoughts and Godbole decides to fight.

Here is another twist to his life.

Achyut Godbole, the chemical engineer with no prior knowledge of programming decides to become an expert in the field of programming.

He begins by reading, researching and learning. Everyday after returning to home from office, Godbole sits at his study table and studies for hours. Everyday he studies for seven to eight hours. He does that for weeks, months and years. He leaves alcohol, says goodbye to all vices and focuses all his energies on achieving his goal- Earning that huge amount of money for his son.

All this while continuing his daily job. Which means Godboleis actually working for more than 14 to 16 hours a day.

Soon his knowledge expands and he becomes ‘Ask Godbole, he must be knowing it’ from being a ‘Why is he even working here, he knows nothing about programming’ at office.

He helps others with their doubts and shares his knowledge with his colleagues at office.

Time for the next turn. Godbole while helping others, understands that teaching is the best way of learning. So, he ventures into teaching.

He decides to write books on his subject to disseminate his knowledge. He begins with the book,‘Operating Systems’. The success of his first book enables him to write two more books- ‘Data Communications and Networks’ and ‘Web Technologies’.

These books become immensely popular due to its simple language and rich content. Across the world, these books are now used as textbooks for teaching this topic.

Meanwhile in his professional life, Godbole is awarded the IBM World Trade Corporation for performance excellence award twice. He then moves on and works for numerous companies and helps them in sustainable expansion. He goes on to work as the GM for Patni computers, CEO for L&T Infotech and as MD for Syntel.

So this is the story of Mr. Achyut Godbole.

Now coming to the motivation part, how do you think Godbole stayed motivated for about 30 years in his life?

The answer is, Godbole never had the motivation to work hard or learn programming.

What Mr. Achyut had was a need. The need to earn money and this need forced him to work hard.

This is what you must learn- Motivation is a myth. There is nothing called as motivation.

People become successful, people earn money, people do impossible things, not because they are motivated but because they have a need that pushes them to do things which average Joe only dream about.

What made Dashrat Manjhi battle with a mountain for 23 years? Was it some self-help books or some motivational talk?

No. It was his need to avenge the death of his wife that made Manjhi create a tunnel in a mountain single handedly.

Don’t ruin your life searching for motivation. You will never end up anywhere. Instead find out the reasons why you want to succeed in life.

Motivation tells you to earn loads of money. Your need will tell you why you must earn that money.

By saying, ‘I want to score this much in my exams’ you will never help yourself but by knowing the reasons for scoring well in the exam you will end up achieving those marks.

During my class 12th examinations, I was told that the course which I wished to pursue for graduation had hefty competition and students from general category must score beyond 80% marks to have a chance.

I was adamant about pursuing that course. I ended up with 82% marks that too when I was working full time until a week before the exam. I was ranked third in the college, while the year before that, I wasn’t even among the top 20.